Friday, August 24, 2012

Works From Another Time

I recently reopened an old hard drive containing files and scans from a long time ago, all while looking for some pieces I will be posting here some time soon.
These three ladies date from back in (in the order posted here):1995, 1987 and 2003 (this last one, "The Venetian Lady", is only a fine tuned guess since it is not dated, but I'm pretty sure it has to be from that time).
The black and white piece (pencil on paper)was a character study for a graphic novel project that never became a reality, the "Lady in the Forest" was a one Saturday job (ink, watercolor and gouache on watercolor paper), I put around 13 hours in it I remember, the size of the original is quite big (100X70 cms). The last one (photoshop) is a portfolio piece.

-Thanks Steven. It was 25 years ago but I'll try to remember. I did the drawing with pencil on water color paper, After that I inked the drawing with a mixture of black and brown ink using a few 'quality watercolor brushes' (can't remember the brand) of different sizes so that I could adjust depending on the need of the moment. After that I watercolored on top starting with a general wash of a warm greenish color (I believe I masked the character with the masking transparent paper one regularly used for airbrushing, back at that time). I have to say I was always amazed at the fact that, when applying the wash, the india ink I used for the drawing didn't smudge at all. The butterfly detail I had to do with opaque gouache, since I had to cover the watercolor washes and they were to small to start masking away each on of them.